Newport farmers market struggles to grow

Elle Mari, manager for the Newport Beach Farmers' Market, holds up a lottery basket of produce that is given away to one shopper a week. Mari also helps set up the market every Sunday and offers nutritional advice.EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

NEWPORT BEACH – Tony Rausa has been hopping farmers markets in Southern California for 20 years – before organic food and eating local were trendy.

Rausa, 84, of Huntington Beach visits the local markets even when his refrigerator is full.

He's a self-proclaimed "farmers' market freak."

Along with his love of farmers markets, Rausa claims a love of cooking that he attributes to his Sicilian mother, who was brilliant in the kitchen. At an early age, he began to cultivate a love of good food and the community that surrounds it.

For Rausa, the Newport Beach farmers market is a dream come true. The market, in Lido Marina Village, recently partnered with bakery Le Pain Quotidien and will launch a chef-to-farmer series Oct. 14. The series will feature on-site demonstrations by chefs to help teach customers how to cook the produce they buy at the market.

Mark Anderson is hoping the new program will attract more Tony Rausas. A lot more.

For Anderson, president of the nonprofit Sprouts of Promise that runs the Newport Beach farmers market, loyal customers like Rausa are exactly what his Newport location needs. Along with the market in Newport, Sprouts of Promise runs the market at the SoCo shopping center in Costa Mesa and two other markets in Los Angeles County.

While Anderson's SoCo location on Hyland Avenue thrives, drawing an average 1,000 customers every Saturday, his Newport location, now two years old, can barely attract a sufficient crowd to keep it afloat.

Anderson attributes his Newport market's struggles to its location at Lido Marina Village, which has little visibility from the main road and few surrounding businesses to draw in new customers.

By including chefs' demos along with other forms of nutrition education, Anderson hopes to set his markets apart from the rest.

In Anderson's version of a farmers market, people don't show up just to check items off their grocery list.

BUSINESS SCHOOL

Anderson wasn't always a champion of local food and small farmers.

After a stint as an investment banker in Chicago, he came to California in 2000 for business school at UCLA. He started testing the tomato seeds for a hybrid seed-breeding company for which he'd just written a business plan. The next thing he knew, Anderson was helping sell the company's tomatoes at the Ventura County farmers markets.

Elle Mari, manager for the Newport Beach Farmers' Market, holds up a lottery basket of produce that is given away to one shopper a week. Mari also helps set up the market every Sunday and offers nutritional advice. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Regular customer Tony Rausa picks through the cucumbers at the Newport Beach Farmers' Market in the Lido Marina Village. Rausa also shops at the Saturday Costa Mesa farmers' market that features many of the same vendors. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Southern California-produced honey is available at the Newport Beach Farmers' Market. The event features a cross-section of produce and freshly prepared items. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Rena Dear and her two sons, two-year-old Vaughn and six-month-old Baron, sample a carrot at the SoCo Farmers Market in Costa Mesa. DREW A. KELLEY, FOR THE REGISTER
Three-year-old Jake Miyashiro takes a sample of a plum at the SoCo Farmers Market in Costa Mesa. DREW A. KELLEY, FOR THE REGISTER
One-year-old Lucas Castillo sleeps as his mother Jennifer purchases vegetables at the SoCo Farmers Market in Costa Mesa. DREW A. KELLEY, FOR THE REGISTER
One-year-old Ivy Furnari and her mother Sarah sample a yellow peach at the SoCo Farmers Market in Costa Mesa. DREW A. KELLEY, FOR THE REGISTER
Willie Malone and Holly Hervey of Texas sample unpasteurized almonds at the SoCo Farmers Market in Costa Mesa. DREW A. KELLEY, FOR THE REGISTER
Mary and Joseph Duvlin stroll through the SoCo Farmers Market in Costa Mesa Saturday afternoon. DREW A. KELLEY, FOR THE REGISTER
The last stone fruits of the season are on display at the Newport Beach Farmers' Market. The Sunday market draws a regular crowd of local customers. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Bell peppers are packaged for sale at the Newport Beach Farmers' Market and hold up a lottery basket of produce that is given away to one shopper a week. The event occurs every Sunday at the Lido Marina Village. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Elle Mari, left, manager for the Newport Beach Farmers' Market, offers nutritional advice to regular customers, from left, Mary Ann Bloxsom, her future daughter-in-law Kelly Dillon, her father Tony Rausa and her sister Patty Bradley. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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